1. Field of the Art
This invention relates to an electronic endoscope system having a scope and a processor and a method for transferring programs, and more particularly to an electronic endoscope system which is operated under the control of an upgradable firmware and a method for transferring upgrading or updating programs.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore, electronic endoscopes have been widely in use for observation, imaging, examination or treatment of an intracavitary portion of interest by introducing an elongated narrow insertion tube into the intracavitary portion. An electronic endoscope is usually equipped with an elongated insertion tube which is generally called “scope”, and has an image sensor device, for example, like CCD (Charge Coupled Device) incorporated into a fore distal end portion of the insertion tube along with an illumination means to take picture images of an intracavitary site of interest under illuminated conditions. Picture images of an intracavitary site under observation are processed by a processor which is connected to the scope, and displayed on a monitor screen and at the same time stored in an image storage for later use, for example, for diagnostic purposes. In this manner, an electronic endoscope is largely constituted by a scope and a processor.
In this connection, in step with recent technical advancements, image sensors like CCD have been markedly improved in the aspects of miniaturization and densification. For example, the number of pixels on a CCD has increased drastically within a short period of time, making it possible to take sharper and clearer picture images of an intracavitary site under observation by an endoscope. In some cases, new functions like focusing and zooming functions are added for closer observation of an intracavitary side of interest. In case a new CCD of advanced functions is developed within a short period of time, it becomes necessary to change functions by adding a mechanism or mechanisms which can cope with the new CCD. Further, in case a new peripheral unit is added to an electronic endoscope, it becomes necessary for the electronic endoscope to control the newly added peripheral unit. Therefore, in order to control a CCD which is added with a new processor or in order to control a new peripheral unit or units, a necessity arises from time to time for updating the version of a firmware which is stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) provided in the scope or in the processor.
For updating a firmware stored in a ROM of the processor, it has been the general practice to send a service staff to a location of an electronic endoscope for replacement of a firmware ROM. Namely, when the electronic endoscope to be updated is not in clinical use, after opening a cover of the processor, a firmware ROM of a current version is removed from a wiring board and replaced by a ROM of a new version. However, once a processor cover is opened, it may become difficult to guarantee safety of the processor because of possible electrical leaks or other problem, giving rise to a necessity for re-verification of the processor. Safety of the processor has to be guaranteed in a reassured manner especially with respect to the electronic endoscope which is electrically connected with the processor and directly introduced into a body cavity of a patient. Generally, safety of a processor is not guaranteed once a screw of a processor cover is removed. Therefore, it is desirable not to open a processor cover at the time of updating a firmware ROM.
In an attempt to solve the problem as mentioned above, there has been proposed a method of updating a firmware in a ROM without opening a processor cover, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2000-245681 (Patent Literature 1). According to the invention of the Patent Literature 1, a notebook PC is connected to a processor of an electronic endoscope through an RS-232 interface, and an updating program which is stored in the notebook PC is transferred to a firmware ROM of the processor for updating the firmware to a new version.
According to the invention disclosed in the Patent Literature 1 mentioned above, it is possible to update a firmware ROM of a processor to a new version. However, generally speaking, a transfer rate is relatively low in the case of a serial transfer by way of RS-232 interface. That is to say, there is a problem that a transfer of an update program by way of RS-232 interface takes considerably a long time. A long transfer time of an updated program could result in a detrimentally long delay of an endoscopic examination. It is usually the case that, due to spatial restrictions, only one processor is installed in an endoscopic examination room. Therefore, when it becomes necessary to use a new scope in an endoscopic examination after finishing an examination by the use of a current system, a firmware ROM in the processor in the endoscopic examination room has to be updated before starting an examination with the new scope. If transfer of an updated program take a long time, a patient has to wait for a long time before taking an examination by a new scope. Besides, in a case where a notebook PC is connected to a processor for updating a firmware to a new version, the use of a non-medical notebook PC in a medical environment can give rise to other problems. In addition, to make things complicate, there has to be provided a cable for connecting the notebook PC to the processor as well as a power cable for connecting the notebook PC to a power source.
Provided internally of the processor are a patient's circuit mounting component parts which can be contacted with a living body, and a secondary circuit which operates on power supply from a commercial power source. A firmware ROM is provided in each one of the patient's circuit and the secondary circuit. In addition, another firmware ROM is provided in a scope connector which connects the patient's circuit with the scope. In a case where a firmware ROM is provided in this manner at a plural number of locations, it is usually the case that an updating program which is acquired by the secondary circuit is transferred to the patient's circuit by a communication means and then to the scope connector via the patient's circuit, instead of a firmware in each ROM independently of each other. In such a case, if it takes an unduly long time in acquiring an updating program at the secondary circuit by serial transfer prior to transfer to the patient's circuit and the scope connector, the serial transfer becomes a bottle neck requiring an extremely long time for updating the version of the firmware ROM in the patient's circuit as well as the firmware ROM in the scope connector.
In order to solve the problem of this sort, it is conceivable to transfer a firmware updating program from a flexible disk or CD-ROM drive which is connected to a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, instead of transferring same from a notebook PC. However, in order to transfer a firmware updating program from a flexible disk or a CD-ROM which is connected to a USB port with only a slave controller, it is necessary to provide a master controller on the side of an electronic endoscope to control the slave controller, along with a program for driving and controlling a flexible disk or a CD-ROM which is connected to a USB port. In addition, it is impractical to use USB because it requires an immense memory space due to a large overhead.